


home

by romajstorovic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Food, M/M, Oh yeah they make out too, They... Talk about noodles, and arms, mostly shiros arm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 06:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18089489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romajstorovic/pseuds/romajstorovic
Summary: "tell me about japan?"





	home

**Author's Note:**

> I forgot I wrote this :)

Shiro is sitting at the table in the castle of lions, morosely picking at some noodles he'd managed to cook. They're still too hot to eat, so he holds his chopsticks and pushes them around. He wishes he had some yakitori, but since chickens are difficult to find on the other side of the universe, he'll settle for udon. It's not like he's a good enough cook to make yakitori- he barely managed to make noodles.

The door hisses open and Shiro looks up. Matt Holt walks through, dressed in some of Shiro's spare pyjamas and one of Hunk's handmade brown hoodies that comes down to the middle of Matt's thighs. Shiro glances at him and raises his eyebrows, whistling appreciatively. Matt jumps.

"Fucking hell, Shiro," Matt hisses. "Where'd you come from?"

"Akita," Shiro smirks. "Northern Japan. Like my udon."

"Very funny," Matt says sarcastically. There's a pause, and then- "what's udon?"

Shiro lifts up his bowl in his Galra hand and pulls some noodles out with his chopsticks. "Udon," he says.

"Noodles," Matt nods. "I thought they were from Italy. And isn't Akita a type of dog?"

"Spaghetti is Italian, noodles are Japanese. We have loads of different types of noodles, which is why I call these udon, and not soba. And Akita hounds are from the Akita region of Japan. I miss Japan," Shiro realises, feeling tears well up in his eyes.

Matt's face falls and he runs over and hugs Shiro. He pulls away as Shiro flinches, apologies spilling from his lips.

"I'm sorry, I should've asked, are you okay-" Matt babbles. Shiro responds by wrapping his arms around Matt's waist and burying his head in Matt's chest.

"I just... Just miss Japan." Shiro laughs, wiping tears from his eyes. "I didn't even live there long. I moved to America when I was ten."

"Tell me about Japan?" Matt asks, leaving to pour himself some cereal into a bowl. Wheat seems to be fairly constant all over the universe, so they can make things like pasta and bread- and Matt's cereal.

"What about it? Food? Technology? History?"

"Start with food." Matt gestures to Shiro's udon. "Like those... Udon?"

Shiro nods. "Udon," he repeats.

Matt places his bowl onto the table and starts eating. "I don't know much about Japanese food," he admits. "I know that sushi is very hard to make."

"Unbelievably," Shiro says. "You need years of training because the fish they make traditional sushi with is poisonous, so they have to cut the right bits out. Eating even a bite of the bad fish could kill you."

"I'm never having sushi again," Matt jokes, and Shiro cracks a smile. He reaches out with a foot and hooks Matt's ankle with his. Matt looks down at the table before realising he can't see through it and laughs.

"Is this okay?" Shiro asks, suddenly anxious. He doesn't know how Matt will react to physical contact, although he guesses that Matt won't be too upset, judging by the earlier hug.

"Of course," Matt says, and for the first time since he'd lost Matt to the Galra, Shiro lets himself think about what he and Matt had had back at the Garrison.

Shiro starts to eat his udon as he thinks back. He thinks about his fight with Adam about the Kerberos mission. He thinks about Adam breaking up with him almost six months before the flight. He thinks about how he stayed at the Holt's place because he didn't want to inconvenience Adam. He thinks about how Matt stayed with him for those sleepless, panicked nights where the relationship he'd put so much into tore him apart. He thinks about the time Matt kissed him just before they got to Kerberos, and briefly wonders if Matt's kisses are still the same before looking back down at his udon.

"Are all noodles- udon?- from Akita?" Matt asks. "Do you know?"

Shiro shakes his head. "There are three main types of udon. Inaniwa udon is from Akita. That's this one," he says, pointing to his bowl with a chopstick. "It's one of the only two things I can't ruin with my awful cooking abilities."

"What's the other?" Matt asks.

"Miso soup," Shiro says. "It's like... Fish, beans, and pork. I could make some if we had pork. Mind you, Lance managed to find a cow, so maybe..." He trails off.

"So you have the in- ina- the udon from Akita-"

"Inaniwa."

"Thanks. What're the others?"

"There's sanuki udon from somewhere near the bottom left of Japan-"

"Bottom left?" Matt interrupts. " _Bottom left_? You mean _southwest_?"

"Yeah, that," Shiro says through a mouthful of udon, pointing at Matt. "And the other is kishimen. It's from... Nagoya, I think."

"Where's that, top right of Japan?" Matt teases.

Shiro shakes his head. "The middle of Japan."

"Central," Matt corrects, and Shiro snorts.

"Just because you picked geography, which, may u remind you, is far inferior to history, doesn't mean you have the right to be rude like that," he grins.

"Use compass points, you heathen!" Matt laughs. "Bottom left. No wonder you took history."

"History is just better," Shiro reiterates, and for the first time in a long while finally feels at home.

Matt leans forward and rests his elbows in the table, his cereal finished. He rests his chin on one hand, and offers the other to Shiro, who takes it. They sit, fingers intertwined, for nearly half an hour as Shiro finishes his udon.

"Space food cools down a lot slower than Earth food," Shiro points out. "Is it weird that I want to find out the difference between specific heat capacity in Earth udon and space udon?"

"A little," Matt laughs. "Especially from you. You hate that part of physics."

"I miss that part of physics," Shiro admits. "I miss a lot of things." He decides that maybe it's time to change the subject. "Do you want to try some?" He holds up some udon, and Matt nods. Shiro reaches over, and Matt opens his mouth. He feeds his friend the noodles and Matt's eyes widen at the taste.

"That's- that's good," Matt says, muffled by the udon in his mouth. He swallows. "Can I have some more?" He asks, a pleading look in his eyes. Shiro nods, eyes rolling in faux-exasperation, and continues to feed his breakfast to Matt.

-x-

Shiro's lying on his bed, feet resting in his pillow, when there's a knock on his door. He calls for whoever it is to come in, and is a little surprised when it is Matt, and more surprised when he sees what Matt is holding.

"Is that-" Shiro asks, bolting upright.

"Miso soup," Matt nods. "It's not perfect, and I got Hunk to help me, but I thought you'd like it."

"Where'd you get the pork?" Shiro asks, eagerly holding his hands out for Matt's bowl.

"It's synthetic," Matt admits. "Combine a cook with a technological genius and you get almost-pork."

"Thank you Hunk and Pidge," Shiro says, inhaling the smell of the soup and ignoring Matt's indignant squawk of "I'm the technological genius!". The soup reminds him of his grandfather, his house in Japan, his _home_. Gratefulness envelopes him, and Shiro carefully places the steaming soup onto his bedside table, and lunges at Matt to hug him.

"Thank you," Shiro croaks.

"It's okay," Matt laughs. "It was worth it to see you happy."

"I could genuinely kiss you," Shiro says, not really expecting anything to happen.

"Then do it," Matt says, deadly serious. And then he's pulling away and tilting his head. "I don't really have a problem with it," he jokes, cracking a grin.

So Shiro does.

He has to lean down a little to reach Matt's mouth- he's still three inches taller than the younger boy and Matt will never forgive him for that- but it's worth it.

Matt's kisses are different to how they were before they were taken by the Galra. Before, they were shy, soft, and tender. Now, they're confident, grounding, and constant- a reflection of how Matt himself has changed. Shiro feels Matt's arms around his waist, pulling them closer together, and is beyond thankful when Matt keeps his hands where they are. He's not ready for anything too sexual yet.

  
He worries that he's not good at kissing anymore. He worries that Matt won't want to kiss him because of it. Matt seems to know, because he pulls away slightly.

"Is this okay?" Matt asks, reaching up to place his hand on Shiro's cheek.

Shiro pauses for a second to take in Matt's face, his flushed grin, and his hand on his cheek, grounding him.

"It's perfect," Shiro laughs. "Absolutely perfect."

Matt smiles wide, and pulls Shiro down to kiss him again. Eventually Matt pulls away, reminding Shiro of his soup.   Shiro's eyes light up and he grabs the bowl, realising Matt neglected to bring a spoon. He shrugs, and begins to sip the too-hot soup from the bowl he holds in his Galra hand.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Matt asks curiously.

"My arm? Not really. It's robotic. I don't think I have pain receptors in this arm. I can feel things, like water or sand, but it's not the same as when I feel it with my real arm."

Matt sits on the bed and gestures for Shiro to sit next to him. Shiro places the soup on the cabinet and Matt takes his Galra arm in his hands. He runs a feather-light finger along the wrist, admiring the joins and finishes of the arm.

"Can you take your shirt off? I wanna see the rest of your arm," Matt asks. Shiro nods, and slips his arm out of Matt's soft grip to take his jacket and shirt off. Shiro half-folds them and places them on the floor, and gives his arm back to Matt.

"So you can control it like a normal arm?" Matt asks.

Shiro nods. "Apart from the fact I can electrocute people with it, it's pretty much a normal arm. Oh, yeah, it vibrates too. Don't ask why because I don't know."

Matt laughs, curling backwards on himself. "Oh man, that could be interesting. Y'know, Haggar had to sit down and think about why you'd need a vibrating arm. Show me," Matt demands.

Shiro turns his arm over and presses at a pad over the centre of his tricep. His arm immediately starts to vibrate, a low hum filling the room. Shiro places his still-vibrating hand on Matt's cheek and Matt's smile only gets wider.

"So you can still feel this?" Matt asks, placing his hand over Shiro's. Shiro nods, startling when Matt starts to trace patterns over the back of his hand. Matt apologises, and Shiro feels guilty.

"I'm not scared, you can put your hand back," Shiro whines.

"Sure?"

"Pretty sure, yeah," Shiro says. "It just tickled."

Matt grins again, before tracing more patterns onto Shiro's hand. "They're constellations," Matt says before Shiro can ask. "This one's Draco. She's one of my favourites."

"Draco is a she?"

"All the stars are women, Shiro. All the stars are women and most of them are lesbians. The sun and moon are gay and in love. _Our_ sun and moon," he clarifies. "And the moon is a trans woman. Like Pidge."

"That's adorable," Shiro smiles, and pulls his hand away from Matt's face so he can drink his soup. He offers some to Matt, and is pleasantly surprised when Matt decides he likes it.

"Is Japanese easy to learn?" Matt asks, stealing the soup bowl. He playfully hisses when Shiro tries to take the bowl from him, but gives the bowl up.

"No harder than English was for me," Shiro says. "Although you'll have to get used to a completely new alphabet and style of writing."

"I'm really bad at that," Matt admits. He rests his head on Shiro's left shoulder and sighs. "Tried learning Russian once. I sucked at it. I learned all of five words. I can say 'yes', 'no', 'what', and 'my name is Matt'."

"All the important words," Shiro giggles. He realises it's the first time in years he's actually, properly giggled. With Matt, he can be vulnerable. He doesn't have to be stoic or responsible. He can relax. Shiro feels himself tear up at the realisation and he pulls Matt close to him.

"What's up?" Matt asks, worried. He places a hand in Shiro's hair and starts to run his fingers through it.

"Nothing," Shiro laughs, looking up at him. "I just haven't felt this at home in years."

**Author's Note:**

> thoughts? and, if I got anything wrong about japanese culture, please let me know so I can change it asap


End file.
